Goddess of Excellence
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Ascending to Godhood was supposed to help fix all of your issues, not make everything even more complicated. The continuation of "Scion of Athena".


The swirl of space and time deposited the goddess with glowing hair at the foot of stairs what went up to the edge of a mountain cliff. The view of the sun setting over the waters far below was very spectacular, but the young goddess was confused as to why she was here.

She clutched her chest in pain as glowing lines started to burn hotter. Instantly she lowered her influence and power of the world, limiting herself to just the power of a powerful demigod. Then she pursed her lips even as she scrubbed her hands through her glowing hair. While she was no mystic, she developed a bit of sense of the magical. It was a useful skill for finding paths from the Overworld and Underworld (and back again).

The surge of her power to open the dormant touchstone failed to activate. Her eyes narrowed. This portal seemed connected to the Moon somehow. And with the sun shining as an antithesis, it would not open. So she watched the sunset on the ocean blue waters of the alien world.

Finally the last embers of red-orange light faded away. Another surge of legend from her and stairs of moonlight appeared.

"Interesting." Her softly glowing blue-green eyes took in the sight of a massive, eldritch city that now existed in the sky above the ocean. A soft surge from her ichor again and she dashed up the stairs in two blinks of an eye, only to enter into a bewildering, dream-like city crafted of soft white light.

Her keen eyes noted that almost all the people that drifted wraithlike through the city ignored her. All but a few of the ghosts, she realized. Casually, she followed them as they headed to the palace in the center of the city. The nobleman walked through the open doors and deeper into the palace.

The goddess Shelinaria almost lost him twice, but the slight ripple in a tapestries and one guttering candle that flickered by his passage led her to find a concealed entrance behind a curtained alcove. Stairs led ever downward until she entered high up in a large circular cavern. It sort of reminded the girl of the Parthenon in Rome as a huge dome on pillars that were holding up the palace far above.

But it was the glowing pattern, spread out in a geometric flower upon the ground. And the ghostly nobleman with a sword was flickering as he walked upon the path, lightning crackling with each footstep.

It was obvious that he was struggling, even if the sense of time was disjointed. Some sort of force had to be pushed against constantly.

"Fate? Destiny? Or a trap?" she muttered to herself. She put her finger down to where that pattern started. A crackle of electricity tried to push her away.

She glared at it for a long moment. The young goddess thought for thirty seconds, then put on a serious face.

Then she stepped forward against the pressure and put her foot down upon the glowing start of the line on the ground. The pressure was incredible as she walked down the first straight line. Her hair was glowing brightly as sparks of electricity started to travel up her legs.

The first turn into a short curve and the pressure lessened up, but Sheila did not let up internally as she marshalled her reserves. Whatever she was fighting was not lightning, something she could easily control.

Pushing through a wall of forceful lightning actually left her panting and she was only one third of the way through the maze. She clenched her jaw, then released a deep breath as she continued forward. This struggle seemed to be more than just physical, but a matter of willpower that imposed itself upon the real world.

The second stage was harder by at least a third. The crackling electricity had risen up to her waist as her multi-faceted mind studied the problem. Grimly, she realized that if the pressure increased this much more again, she was going to be pushed off the pattern. And she suspected that would not be a good idea.

The young goddess took a metaphorical grip deep in her psyche as she came up to the last veil near the center. Her ichor nearly hummed as she drew on her valorous birthright of heroism. The stamp of her feet nearly blew back the lightning.

The Pattern seemed incensed that this outsider, not of the House, dared to defy it and take its power for herself. Several of the ghostly figures shielded their eyes at the strange sight as lightning and thunder roared.

Their conflict thundered with each footstep at the Pattern lashed out to try and destroy the interloper.

Then finally it was over, the silence broken only by the soft tap of two bootsteps.

She stood in the center of the pattern as it glowed in a sullen matter. The young goddess felt very, very light and free all of a sudden.

Now where should she go? While it had been an interesting challenge, it had not taken her to the first shard of herself that was lost-

The Pattern latched upon the thought and desire to go to the next location and sent her on her way. Someone versed more in the shadow walking powers would have been able to stop the push that was sending her away.

But Sheila barely knew of Shadow Walking, much less how it actually worked.

* * *

With a waver and flicker, the girl with glowing hair appeared in the middle of a New York City sidewalk late in the afternoon. A cold wind swept flakes of snow down the full street. A couple of teen boys started staring and pointing, while most just started gawking or craning their necks at the unusual sight.

"Glow in the dark wig? That's way cool, girl!" a stoner with long, straggly brown hair called out.

"It's not a wig," she replied. "2001?"

"So which rockstar are you?" shouted a young kid.

"I am not so mundane a person," she replied with an impish grin. "Everything looks sort of boring and almost washed out."

A cop car pulled up and started flashing its lights. The overweight, older policeman got out and almost waddled over. "What is going on?" he demanded.

"I'm here looking for myself." Her expression turned serious. "Which isn't as funny as it sounds."

"If you could take off the wig, miss? You are causing a disturbance," the policeman called out in a tired and angry tone.

"Not a wig." The glowing-haired goddess snapped her fingers, suddenly taking on a mortal and more normal appearance.

"What the hell was that?" blurted out a fat woman. "Are you some sort of witch?"

"No. I am not." The girl gave the rude woman a glare.

"Okay, everyone move along. You, kid. You are coming in with me for disturbing the peace," the policeman said. "Come on. Move out people."

The young goddess nodded thoughtfully as she followed the cop. "So what is the real reason you are taking me away?" she asked bluntly.

"What are you talking about?" the cop asked nervously.

"I can hear your lie," she explained.

"What clan are you? I mean, uh, most of you sorts don't like to be outdoors even under overcast skies." The older policeman was quite pale now.

"Clan? And somehow I can't see the Tuatha having enough... family members that they would go by clan names. Ah." Vampires. Of course. "So what are you wanting?"

"Just to have you introduce yourself to the Prince. Damn, it's too early. Sun's not going to be down for at least three hours. And even then, it's only going to be the early birds," Officer Winchell said with a groan.

"Could we stop at the public library? I want to get some light reading in," the girl asked.

"I... guess?" What the hell sort of request was that?

* * *

"Elysium? That sounds a little odd," the young demigoddess noted as she stepped out of the back seat of the black Mercedes Benz.

"It is a hallowed tradition," Prince Edward Haggins said as he kept his dark eyes upon the strange enigma in front of him.

His bodyguards kept their hands next to their pistols as they took the steps down to the back entrance of the club. The thick metal door was carefully balanced so it did not feel as heavy as it could.

It led them through a long corridor past a furnace room and then up a narrow set of stairs with locked doors at points. Finally, with the sound of music beating through the old plaster, they entered into a dimly lit room full of too skinny, pale people that all turned to study the very young girl.

"Edward! Darling! I did not know you were bringing us such a vibrantly alive girl into the night," a knockout gorgeous woman called out as she wandered over with her full glass of brandy.

"She is a... visitor, from further away than you would imagine." Edward seemed to find the situation humorous.

"She's not fully human, is she? In fact, I don't think I've ever seen that overwhelming hint of gold across any being I've met in my too few centuries." At least she did not have the full zealot aura of holiness that the templar hunters had.

"Ah, no. It's something I've inherited a bit from my mother. It's a classical hero thing," the young girl said impishly.

"Madam Guelviere, I need to introduce her to Taltios of the Tremere. She is in need of mystical talents-" Haggins voice chopped off in mid-word as he saw the same girl at his side walk in besides one of his contacts within the NYC police department.

The only difference he could see is the outfits. The girl at his side was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, while the one across the room was wearing a black uniform with polished boots.

"The hell?" Sheila exclaimed loudly right beside him.

"Hello, me." The other girl started to walk across the room. "This is a lot of vampires." This reminded her far too much of those Giovanni that owned the casino in Vegas in that 1980s time frame.

"Me? Time travel?"

The vampires were very confused by this point, which was not a safe state of affairs. The prince stepped forward. "What is going on?"

"I'm looking for parts of myself that I've lost through all reality. Looks like I actually get to say I found myself without reaching Nirvana," the goddess said with a smile that revealed her dimples.

"I'm myself," the shadow of Sheila said with curled, furious eyebrows.

A female vampire gasped from the side of the lounge, holding up her hand as if to ward away a great evil. "What are you? You are not even slightly human!"

"Huh?" The other version of the girl looked confused even as the cop backed away, pulling his gun on the black wearing girl.

"Oh, that's easy enough to explain." Soft, golden light flowed back into her hair. "I am Shelinaria, Goddess of Battle and Excellence on a desperate quest to find all of myself."

One of the vampires burst out laughing. "Oh, this is wonderful. So absurd that it even distracts me from the Sabbat. It even keeps the voices at bay. Snickety-snack!"

"This is not one of you damn delusion, Roland. You have the eyes to see her true self! Look! Look closely, you fool Malkavian!" the leader of the Tremere nearly shouted.

Everyone was surprised as the metal door was kicked in, knocking a scruffy looking vampire over as he tried to dodge the door. In came a group of vampires that looked like they had escaped from a biker gang, except for the few that had long trench coats.

"You wouldn't believe how long I had to wait for the Sheriff, Seneschal and Prince to all be present before I made my move," the lead figure said, a too pale vampire with short blonde hair. "All the better to kill all at once."

"Bishop Antonio Vivaldi Detrick," Edward Hoffman, the Prince of New York by barely a month, said through gritted teeth, baring his fangs.

"Ahem." Everyone turned to look at the girl with glowing hair. "Go away, you are interrupting." She was absolutely glaring at the Sabbat bishop.

Detrick just smirked as he raised up his shotgun. "Kill the tools of the antediluvians!" he ordered.

One of the Camarilla vampires screamed (one of the women wearing a 17th century French noble's dress) as the two factions of vampires suddenly rushed into combat. The Brujah and their 'antitribu' brothers were the fast and hard hammers as more esoteric powers of mental domination, emotional manipulation, psychosis and shadow manipulation were thrown between the two factions. The guns and knives that they used were almost an afterthought.

Sheila had pulled out her pistol, Athena's Wit, and had already shot twice, taking two Sabbat vampires out and forcing them to waste their blood to heal their shattered limbs. "What are you going to do-!?"

The goddess had summoned her Athena's Wit and the black sword Hadecleus out of its shadow space. In a flicker of movement that none of the vampires followed, she stepped between the tentacles of shadows that the Lasombra that were attempting to kill her and some Camarilla vampires as if they were standing still.

The bishop tried to block the sword strike aimed for his neck that he almost sensed, raising his arm to stave off death.

Hadecleus barely slowed as it removed his head, leaving the old vampire to crumble into dust. Hundreds of pellets roared out from two sawed-off shotguns as two of the fastest Brujah Antitribu tracked the blur and streak of sunlight. For their troubles they were the next vampires that had their heads removed as the flattened pellets landed on the ground.

"What the %!$!? What is she?" one of the Malkavian Antitribu shrieked out as she tried catch the things eyes so she could send a vision of despair into her.

"Well, I'll be. It's exactly what she said on the tin. She a god-damned goddess of battle," Roland, the leader of the Camarilla Malkavian said loudly in admiration.

"I try not to lie unless its important," Sheila as danced between gunshots and the occasional small ball of fire that the Sabbat were sending at her. Hadecleus swept left and right, removing two more vampire's heads.

"Jamie, together now," a female sabbat (one of those wearing trenchcoats) called out to her companion. Their chanting caught the goddess, lifting her off the ground. "Kill her, quick!"

Athena's Wit boomed twice, striking each Tremere Antribu in the forehead with stunning force. The thunder enhanced bullets smashed the two vampiric mages against the bulletproof glass in a smear of blood and ash as they disintegrated.

Before her boots touched down, she had spun and kicked two of the vampires that were trying to shred her with their claws. One bounced hard off the window again, but the second actually shot through the wall (which was not nearly as sturdy).

The first Gangrel Antitribu was just standing up as he was struck by two more bullets, fired by the heroine Sheila as she blocked a punch from one of the few Sabbat vampires left.

The Prince was thinking furiously fast. He did not know if he believed her statement of divinity, but he was not going to annoy the young girl that was demolishing a furious Sabbat attack. As the last Lasombra fled into the night, he turned his charm up to eleven. "My thanks for your amazing intercession. What can I reward you for your help?"

The goddess Sheila bit off her first scathing comment about helping blood sucking leeches. "I just wish to talk to Sheila there. Privately."

"Armando, escort her to my private chambers. Would you prefer some wine be brought to you?" he asked politely.

"It's not necessary. Besides," she said with a dimpled smile, "I'm only twelve."

"You've only been a goddess for twelve years? Amazing," Marianne Taltios said as she let her blood heal the painful wounds she had taken. She had been one of the primary targets of the attack.

"No, that's only been about forty-eight hours." Sheila grinned at 'herself' there.

The other Sheila started laughing. "Goddess before our thirteenth birthday? I can live with that!" She seemed to find it quite funny.

"Quit ambitious of yourself," Haggins said in a droll tone.

"Mother entered as a full goddess from Zeus's forehead. We are definitely a bit of a slacker in comparison to her, Hermes, Artemis and Apollo," she replied in a flat, unfriendly tone. She hated that she had no chance to compete against their legends in such a way.

"The daughter of Athena? Some people would consider that... blasphemous," the Tremere primogen said as she clenched her hand around an amulet in her hand.

"Adopted, of course. To keep the peace between Hera and Zeus," she said as she gave them a small shrug. "That room?"

A thug (in a very nice suit, but he still had shoulders that most linebackers would envy) led them off to a side room as the vampires started to clean up.

"So, I assume that something happened to send parts of your spirit to other worlds? Alternate realities?" the demigoddess version of herself asked curiously.

"I was caught in the blast of a shattering mirror that held open five different alternate realities. It... damaged me, sending shards of myself to elsewheres. And it is keeping me from using my full godly form, as I am incomplete. I was told by Voreth that I had to recover these shards before I can help in driving back the Titans to their prisons," Sheila explained carefully, but concisely.

The civilian garbed girl whistled at that. "Our soul is damaged? And how do you fix yourself?"

"By finding my pieces scattered all across realities and (I think) reattaching them somehow-"

"I am myself, not just a fragment of you," the less powerful Sheila snapped out.

"It could be that the fragment is within you, not that you are the fragment," the goddess noted.

"Oh, I hadn't considered that. Of course, you would have thought of that. You are probably rivaling our mother in the smarts department." There was a hint of jealousy at that point.

The door banged open as an unknown vampire led the way into the room, leading the prince and the different clan leaders of the city.

"This slip of a girl destroyed a Sabbat attack force by herself? It seems the Sabbat you were having a problem with were far more incompetent than you were saying," the sallow (and frankly quite evil looking) vampire said.

"Archon Viceroy, I have never seen anyone as fast or as strong she showed herself to be," Prince Haggins said in a calm, collected voice.

Viceroy sniffed disdainfully. "Well, you are only of the 12th generation. I doubt you have seen more than a few centuries and the power that exists hidden in the shadows of this world."

"Excuse me? If I could be introduced? This is Sheila," the young goddess said, pointing at the girl in a T-Shirt, "and I am Shelinaria."

"This is Archon Viceroy, sent here by the Justicar Lucinde to help with our Sabbat issue," Haggins said, even as the other vampire leaders of his court watched on suspiciously.

"Where were you when we were being attacked then?" Sheila asked in sudden consideration.

"I was unavoidably detained and could not get here before the attack had finished," Viceroy said smoothly.

Sheila frowned. Something didn't sound right about that.

But it was Shelinaria that spoke. "Hmm. There was no truth in that statement at all."

The archon raised an eyebrow sardonically at that. "Oh? You are able to discern the truth better than a renowned sensitive like the Tremere Taltios or the Toreador Guelviere Brankworth?"

"I can hear lies when they are spoken, even catching out gods like Loki. So yes, you lied when you said you could not be here for the attack. Even though you are supposedly here to stop the Sabbat," the young goddess countered.

The prince and his primogen council had all turned quite unfriendly at that.

Guelviere Brankworth, the stunning vampiress in a scandalous cocktail dress had narrowed her eyes at that. "His aura is remarkably flat, not even showing any irritating at being accused of lying. And breaking hospitality." There were powers that allowed you to mask your aura, but they were rare.

Viceroy frowned. "I am always in control of my emotions."

"Only a partial lie there," Shelinaria noted blandly, getting a raised eyebrow from the other scion-self.

"I am sure that we could get this resolved easily," Prince Haggins said carefully. "We shall just ask your guards outside under Taltios and Sylvia's discerning eyes."

"You dare?" the archon shouted angrily.

"And checkmate. Revoke his hospitality," Madam Guelviere said. "His aura did not show his anger at all. Talking to his underlings will just prove he tried to murder us all in our city under your protection and against his supposed orders." The Toreador's confidence was quite high on this matter. "I shall be personally bringing this matter up to my elders."

Adam Viceroy snarled, showing the beast he had barely contained on his features. "What foolishness is this? I represent the Justicars-"

"You represent Justicar Lucinde in defending this city, but not in any other matter. And I feel the other Justicars and the council will be quite interested that you tried to have a court murdered during a Sabbat attack upon the important city that you were charged with defending and making sure it did not fall to the Sabbat," the prince said, furious and angry that he was being manipulated so.

The archon's mind and will snapped, as he extended his fangs as he lunged at the upstart prince of his own clan, the Ventrue. The puerile child-!

The smashing of concrete was deafening as the goddess intercepted him and then slammed him face first into the floor, cratering the hard surface out to ten feet and rendering the vampire unconscious.

"Sorry about the floor, but he was far more powerful than the rest of you so I had to hit him harder," Shelinaria said as she kipupped to her feet.

Marianne Taltios, the leader of the Tremere of this city, paled as she realized this was the young girl still holding back. "So this is just the form you have taken in this mortal realm?"

"That's correct-" the young goddess started to say.

"Since when did we become stronger than Dolph?" the other girl demanded.

"Dolph is still far stronger than me. He would have used the building to smash the 'bad guys' as he puts it." Shelinaria just grinned at her stunned expression. That was fun.

"Buildings? Like Hercules?" the Nospheratu in the shadowy corner asked in a biting manner.

"Something like that. I'm here to speak to Sheila." If she kept this up, the young goddess expected a zombie outbreak to try an interrupt her. So she put her hand on Sheila's shoulder. "Let's leave-"

A blinding red line of light nearly exploded along the front of the young goddess, so bright you could see it through the other girl. It was one of her 'fractures' caused by the mirror from Atlantis.

And Sheila started screaming as she felt her ichor, her soul being dragged from her essence. The vampires shielded their light sensitive eyes from the mystical conflagration.

The sound of a simple gold band ring hitting the ground was the only sound that broke the hush of silence. A polished, leather boot stomped on it lightly, to stop it as Shelinaria held her hands to the fading light that had seared her soul. She hissed in pain as she felt the embers of a different life being absorbed.

"I killed her," she breathed out in shock, looking at the empty clothing on the hardwood floor that was sublimating away.

All she think of is that she had to get away, to flee.

And the winds took her away as fast as they could, as she smashed out the side of the building at almost half again as fast as the speed of sound in an impossible jetstream. All of the vampires had been flung backwards by the tempest in the sitting room. Shards of brick, glass and wood were found miles away down 100th St and into the Hudson.

The police thought a bomb had gone off, forcing the vampires to flee and leaving a sign of the bloody massacre behind with guns littering the club.

No one had noticed Taltios, the primogen of the Tremere, take the gold ring off the ground.

* * *

The goddess Shelinaria landed upon the soft earth out in the woods of Pennsylvania as the winds died down. Her breath was harsh in her ears as she tried to make sense of the extra life. Much of it was familiar to her, but there were minor differences, such as the time Sheila had snuck out to go to the mall to see a movie after stealing ten dollars from her younger brother.

(He had not even noticed it was missing, Sheila dimly remembered).

Her blue-green eyes took in the wind damaged area. She would have to remember to be a little more careful. While it was not a tantrum, she could have (and may have, actually) hurt someone by not controlling her powers.

The young goddess's thoughts were awhirl as she tried to come up with some sort of plan, so sort of action she could take. "I need an expert in the mystical or magical." And one that might not have an ulterior motive like Vorathi might, she realized.

With that, she set out to start traversing the different realities, to get back to where she had started at. The woods turned to scrubs and long grass as the sky whirled above her. She passed a town that looked like it was more based on Native American ideas and concepts, rather than European style buildings. In a remarkably short amount of time, Sheila walked around a curve in the dusty desert of the south-west to the Daughters of the Moon ranch.

Everything seemed slightly more real, the colors (even in the dark) more vibrant. Polished boots walked down the road. Sheila looked over at the Amazon that was trying to sneak up on her.

"Hello, Rhonda! How are doing?" Sheila said to the deadly and trained warrior.

"You aren't exactly sneaky with that glowing hair," the woman said, grumbling under her breath at having been spotted.

"Why would I sneak up to my cousin's home?" the young teen asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Um, practice? I guess that was a bit silly." Rhonda set the assault rifle back over her shoulder to keep up with the fast walk.

The ranch was a large building that had some very remarkably fit women that did all the chores of the building. They entered into the main house through the double door (across a dusty parking lot with a dozen vehicles) and into the fell furnished greeting room of the hostel.

"Oh, I forgot that it was that kind of ranch." Sheila was desperately trying to not blush. The Amazons used the ranch to find suitable fathers for their children on their own terms.

Rhonda just snickered at the kid's response. "Sammie, where's the Lady?"

The not-really-dressed woman behind the counter blinked. "Rhonda, no kids. And the Lady is in the Presidential Suite."

"You can throw the goddess out on her ear if you want. Ring her up and let her know that her cousin is here," the younger Amazon said with a grin on her face.

Sammie looked at the young girl (with glowing gold hair) and then nodded, picking up a phone to call up.

It was only about twenty minutes later that Dana showed up, looking more mortal than before and casually wearing sweatpants and a loose bathrobe.

"Hey-lo. Sorry about that, but I was keeping Lisa happy and away from Tsukyo," the goddess Venatorfuriae, aka. Dana Vitali sing-songed out as she walked down from the stairs. "What's with the scar on your face?"

"Scar?" Sheila blinked as she put her hand to her face. "Ah, that was caused by what I wanted to speak to you about. You know I've got a lot of those marks from the destroyed Mirror of Alnottis?"

"Right. But how did it leave a physical mark?" Dana asked in confusion.

"I found where part of my soul had manifested in an alternate, past time. Short version, when I touched her, it absorbed and killed that version, leaving this mark." Sheila concentrated a second, healing the wound and removing the scar.

"So like that weird guy in the Gothic armor that attacked Dolph? That he ended up absorbing? Alternate dimensional shards of your souls." The goddess of the Furies frowned as she started to really consider the matter. "Which means we have some out there, too. You were hit with hundreds of shards. No wonder your soul is all chopped up. I'm surprised you even partially ascended."

"Where are all the others?" the blonde asked suddenly.

"Dolph is dealing with his mother and that Prince of Hel thing. Janeka is dealing with some of her mortal business and crafting. Think she's working on a godly firepower gun. Tsukyo-Ryu is in Japan and I heard he hooked up with some miko and is dealing with a bunch of Japanese oni. I haven't seen hide nor hair of Dorathi or Voreth." She gave a shrug at that.

Sheila pursed her lips. "Well, Voreth took me to her mother, Demosia the Chained, to get a greater insight into my issue. She told me I have to recover those 'shards' of myself or I will never fully ascend. That was in the past twenty or thirty years ago. I didn't check closely."

"Ah, I see. Well, I think that any purely mortal or mere hero version of yourself will probably just not be able to survive meeting you. I'm not actually sure what would happen if you met an equally powerful version of yourself and if you aren't careful meeting a fully empowered goddess version..." Dana frowned at this. "Well, you could be the one absorbed, not the other way around."

"Any ideas at all?" the younger goddess asked.

"Being able to exist in multiple locations, like the masters of The Way like uncle Hermes... That might help. That's beyond your power, I think. At least I haven't figured out how to do that. I think you and Tsukyo-Ryu were the only ones with any powers of travel," the new goddess of magic said as she thought aloud.

"His was more natural to him from his father, I believe. I was kind of stealing some power from that Ring of Fleeting Health I took of that traitorous son of Hermes that tried to murder me. Dolph is in New York, I would guess." Sheila gave her cousin a shrug at her rolling her eyes.

"So what are you going to do?" the ex-cop, now turned goddess, asked curiously.

"Well, I guess I have to decide if I should take the easy way and just be a monster, eating the weak versions spread across all reality or try to see if i get gobbled by meeting my equals," the younger goddess said in nervous sarcasm.

Dana snorted at that. "People still revere even the most monstrous gods." She suddenly grinned, a very feral look. "After all, you have the Son of Hel and the Goddess of the Furies in your band. Quit being such a paladin. I've got to get back to ensuring the continuation of my Amazons, without annoying another god." With that, she turned and headed back upstairs.

The youngest goddess stared off into the distance in the direction her cousin had disappeared for a long minute, then turned and walked back outside, nodding to Rhonda who was lounging out on the porch.

"So which are you, paladin or monster?" the follower of Dana asked curiously.

"Hopefully a live paladin," she replied truthfully.

"So even as a goddess, you are still just a kid." Rhonda turned and walked back inside the ranch house, letting the door slam behind her, leaving a very frustrated and fuming goddess behind her.

Sheila suddenly had a very good reason why gods were prone to smiting people. She needed to get away from things. Everything.

* * *

The goddess Shelinaria walked through dim, indistinct realities, her wandering path matching her mood. Each turn back towards her home reality after her jaunt was drenched in rain and dark clouds. She was fairly close after a subjective hour and a half, walking through a run down version of New York City. After that last last comment by Rhonda, she was in a bad mood.

"You! Girl! Give me your money or I'll cut you," a scraggly white punk said. His pale skin was quite matched with his bleach blond hair.

The young goddess realized, in bemusement, that she must look a bit mundane right then without her glowing hair and her pixie haircut quite drenched in rain. Her dark 'uniform' was too indistinct to really stand out. "You want to turn around and go the other way," she warned with a little bit more emotion than she had shown earlier, breaking through her funk just a bit.

He just snarled and lashed out to scare her with the knife. So when she caught his hand and with a twist disarmed him, he just blinked his brown eyes in confusion. "Ah, shit. A power. That's just not ! &*#$& fair."

"And it would have been fair to a young teen to be attacked and robbed in the rain?" she asked archly, sarcasm heavy in her voice.

"Dammit, I need it. Ripper is so good, I need my high. You don't know what it's like-" The druggie blinked as he crossed his eyes at the finger touching his forehead.

"All better. Now go away." With that, she continued down the debris covered road, leaving the cured druggie in her wake.

She turned the corner onto a suddenly busy Central Park West and started to walk north on the side of the road with all the large buildings. The rain had never existed here, so people were looking at her askance, wondering why she was drenched. The young goddess spotted the entrance she was looking for and walked into the foyer.

"We're closed. The apartment entrance is on the back side of the building," the security guard at the front desk called out even as he casually made sure his taser was ready.

"The penthouse elevator is through the front though. I'm here to see my friend Janeka," the teen girl said with a smile.

"Let me call up and confirm. Your name, please?" the guard asked as he picked up the phone without taking his eyes off the girl. "Miss White, there's a Miss-"

"Shelinaria."

"Sheli Naria- Immediately? Certainly, ma'am. I'll buzz you right in," he said.

The young goddess gave him a nod and walked into the elevator that opened right up for her. It rocketed to the top floor quickly. With a ding, she stepped out. "Burning the midnight oil, Emanuel?" she asked the personal assistant at his desk.

The incredibly handsome Hispanic man smiled. "It's only seven o'clock, Miss Henderson. I just have some presentations that I need to finish the numbers on for Miss White. I was expecting Mr. Jorgensen. I think they were planning to go over to his mead hall."

That got a raised eyebrow. What mead hall?

That was when the very energetic hacker/inventor/goddess trotted in at a more than human pace. She grabbed the younger girl and dragged her into her spacious penthouse proper. Large windows were dominated with the skyline of the New York building to the east. "There's my favorite younger cousin! Come on in," the daughter of Ares said. She was looking very exotic with her subtle silver circuitry in her skin and dark copper (literally) hair. "Are you incognito? You're hair isn't glowing."

"I, uh, sorta messed up with my last stop by staying fully in the mortal world. I see you still have your eye candy, as Dana would no doubt say." It was only a small deception, as all that had happened, but that was not the real reason for her mundanity.

"He's really smart, of course. So not just eye candy. And not even a candle compared to Dolph. He's supposed to be coming over with some pizza in about an hour-" she was saying when the when their bodies reacted to a rain of arrows that shattered the armored windows like fake sugar-pane windows.

Even with her preternatural reaction, Sheila still had two arrow stuck in her back as she rolled into the lowered area with the coffee table.

"Okay, you $% shits. You break into my home and break my stuff while trying to kill me, I am not going to be pleasant to you at all," Bellicus Decipio, goddess of artifice and war snapped out. She had her overly large handgun out and was a flicker of superhuman motion as she dodged between arrows. With a flick, the the pistol turned it into a full gun-sword to quickly bat away four more arrows.

The younger goddess was pushing more of her essence into her physical form, becoming less mortal with every moment.

"Defense systems activated. Defend the goddess," robotic voices called out as the compact, disk forms of Bella's robotic followers fell from hidden slots in the ceiling.

"ACKNOWLEDGED!" the rest of the robots replied as they started firing blasters (with red energy) out onto the roof of the building where demon-masked, bare chested Atlantean assassins were busy firing arrows into the penthouse.

Two of the Atlantean, further in the back were chanting in a language far lost in time. "Life for the gods! Gods for our lives!" they repeated over and over. Blue fire ignited inside their chest, burning mystically. In moments they were pillars of fire.

Fire that was the pinning of a portal, large enough for an Atlantean demon-ogre, easily thirty-five feet tall with black horns that curled at the side of his head. It bellowed into the night, stunning the evening crowd of New Yorkers on the street over a hundred feet below. Lightning crackled down its twisted, evil looking ax to instantly crush one of the robotic defender.

"Shee-it. Another one of these? And us here alone," Bellicus complained.

Sheila snorted as she dashed over in a flickering blur of motion. "Right. Because two goddesses of battle need help."

Janeka just stuck her tongue out at the younger girl. "Time for some heavy metal!" Metal swirled into existence around her as she formed a colossus war-armor that hinted at high tech ballistic armor and Spartan warrior armor of bronze, brass and gold.

Shelinaria's own fifteen foot tall colossus war armor form was more polished silver, steel and gold of a classical Athens style of armor. She had formed a large spear. Of which she got to use immediately as she had to block a deadly ax that was still nearly the size of their armored forms.

The human-sized assassins were trying fire their bows at the two war goddesses, only to find that trying to shoot an archaic weapon among the feet of giants on a shuddering rooftop was not very easy at all. They barely had time to scream as the demon-ogre trampled them under in his attempt bring his great brute strength onto the figures that were less than a third of his size, but they were quicksilver fast with stabbing spears that jabbed into his side to spill his acidic, blue-green blood upon the roof of the building.

A massive boom shook the whole building as the ogre staggered to one knee as something slammed into his shoulders from behind

"That is my girlfriend you are attacking there," the god Djorgen, son of Hel and god of the Ice Cold Forge, said in a fury. Dolph normally too incredibly handsome face was twisted in a furious anger. He was over forty-five feet tall himself, showing his giant blood. The Shovel swept left to cut a huge gash in the ogre's stomach. The long spear spun and they sliced upwards to finish disemboweling the monster.

"Killstealer," Bellicus said in good natured complaint. An odd look crossed her face. "Looks like I'm staying at your place. You have terrible WiFi, Dolph."

"It's a Mead Hall," he countered back. "We could always go hang out in my Forge in the Underworld. And you've got your own place that connects to it, too."

"It's just my magitech workshop."

Sheila blinked as she looked between the two. They had Realms?

"Which is a fancy way of saying bar. Because you have beer and wine, too. So, Shel, we've been thinking. We need to bust open the locks that the Titans have put on the Overworlds. Because I don't think we want to fight all the titans on our own here on Earth," Bellicus explained to the pair. "So we need to get our other two wayward godlings and pick an overworld to invade."

"Not Asgard. It can fucking wait," Dolph snarled out.

"Ooookay. So Olympus or the Sun Palace of Amaterasu," Bellicus said. "Probably shouldn't try for Olympus first, as we got three of us so it's obvious."

"So everyone would think, of course. So let's do it anyways. Our enemies like to think they are tricky, so we'll be straightforward this time," Shelinaria said as she tapped a forefinger to her chin. Her stomach felt like a cold pit as she suddenly realized this was the other Sheila's nervous tic. She dropped her hand and put it in her pocket.

"She's got a point. And don't pull that if they know we know they know stuff, Bellicus," the Aesir god of the Cold Forge said.

Bellicus frowned. "Fine. Let me call Dana."

"I'll call Tsukyo-Ryu," Dolph said.

"That leaves Voreth for me. I may need to learn a spell or two to actually send her messages. I don't think she is cell phone friendly," Sheila said as she looked out into the distance. She closed her eyes and then opened them to the realms of fate and destiny. Strings or ribbons bound her tightly to her cousin and his beau, but it was the ones that headed almost directly south that she wanted to travel. "I may be a bit." The winds lifted up the black garbed girl into the air and then she shot after the binding of fate.

'Toodles, cuz,' Bellicus called out mentally to her.

Shelinaria had a small smile on her face even as she sped up. She calculated her speed after a minute. Only twice the speed of sound. And a trick of her perception, checked to see if the lined was going straight, ignoring the curvature of the Earth.

That actually got a frown on her face, as that was headed to the Antarctic. And that was too long to fly. Using the Atlantean tunnels would be very unadvisable, as their gods would be there. So she needed to go faster. Legend burned to control the Ring of Fleeting Health, speeding up he travel even faster.

Now she was only two and a half hours away.

Time enough to think of her own domain or realm. Some place that was really her own. The young goddess through and dreamed up her own home. A fortress that most ancient beings would be confused at attacking directly.

Petals of gold mirrors, country landscapes and unbreakable glass started to dance within her head. Perhaps a small place to remember the version of her that she had accidentally murdered. And all the size of a small country.

* * *

He hated the cold. Installing the first pillar that rose high into cold, icy night sky was unpleasant, even for a sturdy god of the forge. The god Dorathon (who was Dorathi to his companions) studied through his purloined US Army night vision goggles the one thousand foot tall megastructure of steel, brass and bronze.

The Atlantean god leaped from his perch and landed on the hard ice below him. His barely clad form ignored the blisteringly cold wind and ice. Several of his automatons grabbed him and carried him off to his forge in the forbidding volcano miles away. It was not lost on his keen mind that super villains (and certain dark lords of ring fixation) all built their lairs in such an 'evil' hideaway. Did that mean he really was destined to be a monster? A villain of the worst sort?

He was just opening the massive armored door when a figure appeared next to him.

"Dorath-eaurk," Shelinas started to say in greeting and her body was suddenly wracked in pain. "What the hell?" This was agonizing and she felt her limbs trembling.

"You feel the pain of invading out lands. I am the god Dorathon now, Sheila," the youngest Atlantean god said as he clenched his jaw angrily. "The Lost Forger."

It hurt, but she was too sturdy to be affected too much. "It's been a few years for you, hasn't it? What have I done, Forger, to earn your anger?" Sheila demanded.

The massively muscled god looked like he was ready to rip her asunder. "Nothing. But our pantheons are at war!"

"It will be a war that could rip the heavens and Earth apart, friend Dorathi. Would you have us destroy everything to stop the Titans? The Greeks invented a word just for that sort of victory. Pyrrhic victory. A victor of battle that leaves you devastated ." She glared at him rate back.

"They went to war against the other gods because I was taken away and lost. I am the cause of the fall of Atlantis!" he shouted angrily even as he picked her up by the uniform collar.

"Your mother had already betrayed all of the pantheons. Zeus actually ordered us to find out what was going on, as rumors of treachery were already on the wind. You, Dorathi, were an excuse to go to war at the very best." She was glaring right back at him.

"I can not fight against them," the Atlantean said in a hollow, low voice.

"Then choose to try and save them, Dorathon who is the Lost Forger God." Sheila was giving him an intense look of her own.

"You make it sound like it's just that easy," he snapped back, quite at odds with his laid back, eccentric ways.

"No, I think it is that hard. But it is the hard things that heroes do. Never the easy things." The younger girl's voice had a bitterness that almost matched the blistering cold of the Antarctic cold.

"Sheila... No, Shelinaria, goddess of what? Prodigies? You have been coddled and are weak." Dorathi had a sneer. 'Make this look good, otherwise we are both dead by my family's hand,' he sent a thought over to her directly with his own intellect.

'This might hurt,' Sheila shot right back telepathically. "So being strong means being as big an ass as your mother?" She shot forward, lashing out a punch that was a literal blur to the massive muscular god in front of her.

His head whipped back as he staggered back from the punch as he realized he might have picked a bad fight. Dorathi erupted into fire, melting the snow in front of his forge out fifty feet.

A black sword appeared in Sheila's hands, slamming home hard against Dorathi's slow dodge and leaving a small line of blood across his pectoral muscles. Her black uniform burned away, to reveal her low profile armor. She should have donned her heavier armor, she noted in frustration.

But she thought she was here to talk to a friend. Well at least he was not an enemy-

The young Atlantean god used his arms to ward her next two attacks off, contemplating his course of actions. If he continued to fight her directly, the young goddess (of war, he remembered a bit belatedly) was going to pound him down and then they she would be killed when his father arrived. So he mentally activated his first Walking Tower and then ran into his lair.

Mile away, machines spun to life as liquified nuclear fuel was pumped into reactors. Steam hissed as piston the size of small houses started to rumble to life as over a dozen drills pointed downward started to dig into the ground, shaking snow and earth for miles.

Sheila was about to follow Dorathi into his base when she felt that. She turned and glanced in the direction of the tower she had seen while flying in from the ocean. It was starting to sink. And the more it sank, the greater the shaking of the earth. Rocks started to fall from the underground cave's ceiling.

The meaning was clear, follow Dorathi into his machine shops and have a volcano crash on her or break off this battle.

"Damn it," she muttered, even as she shot into the air above the fog bank that was filling the area.

The tower was now half dug into the ground as more steam was given off into the cold air, partially concealing it. A massive, rhythmic pounding started to sound every ten seconds as gold and brass automations by the thousands fled as quickly as they could, like deranged insects and animals all made of cogs and pistons.

The pounding finally stopped even as the young goddess flitted around it at a safe distance. The engines seemed to rev up even further as a deep sawing sound filled the air, far louder than any jet engine. Some of the automatons that had not gotten far enough way were pulverized by the sound wave and Sheila was hit so hard by the it that she was instantly deafened.

She felt the sound die away, allowing herself to heal her ears, only to hear an obnoxious ratcheting noise. Over a fifty miles out in a huge circle, cracks were developing as the tower lifted up megatons of rocks.

"He's going to build enough of these to move Atlantis back to where he feels it should go." Crazy, but technically something he could do, even as a new, young god.

She then shot off to the north to let everyone know what had happened to the god and goddess in one body.

* * *

It was three o'clock in the morning when the Secret Service intruded. The lights clicked on even as two of them went to the bulletproof windows.

"Mr. President, we need to get you to the shelter. Now. The Army and Navy aren't slowing down these guys at all. They are already on the ground in just two minute," the night's head security officer of his security detachment said. "Marrow and Giles are getting your daughters, but we need to get you to safety-"

The four inch thick bullet proof glass shattered like it was made of pane of Hollywood crystallized sugar. Then an eight foot tall figure, dripping a dank seaweed exuded a terrible, mind-numbing terror strode in through the window. He was clad only in a tattered loincloth, with a cruel looking trident made of bones as his weapon of choice.

"You will surrender your government or you will suffer an eternity in your gods place for their crimes against Atlantis," the god said even as he slapped the nearest Secret Service agent. With a sickening crack, the dead man was flung through three walls.

The crack of handguns was loud for the next thirty seconds as Baduras, dread god of the oceans and head of the Atlantean pantheon enjoyed the feelings of their dawning horror. Brackish seawater flowed at his feet even as he used it to raise a barrier at the door. The snapping jaws in the wall of water kept the humans back.

Then the water rose around one Secret Service agent at a time, crushing them horribly as the president's wife screamed and screamed.

"Why are you doing this? What has the United States of America done to warrant your anger?" the president demanded as he held his wife close.

"You exist and are descended of those people that betrayed us in fear of our power and our culture. This world will become ours in payment-" Baduras was declaring when he was interrupted by the roar of a motorcycle and... the sound bugles playing the Dixie Charge.

A huge Harley-Davidson bike blasted through the reinforced walls, skidding to a halt through the shallow waters in a huge spray.

"Hey, he might be rat-bastard Federalist, but he's still my rat-bastard," the new arrival said in a gruff voice as he knocked back his Civil War era cap. He was wearing a worn leather jacket and chaps. His heroic face featured a scruffy beard and long dirty-blonde hair.

"Godling," the older god spat out.

"Hey, now! I'm a full god of rebellion and discontent. Just because I'm not so old and moldy that no one remembers me doesn't mean I'm not!"

Baduras stuck out his chest and flexed his shoulders and arms, looming over the other god sitting on his motorcycle. "I am Baduras, great god and founder of Atlantis. Tell me your name, insolent godling, so that you people weep tears as you are tortured for eternity."

"I'm Johnny Reb, the damned rebel of the United States of America! And don't you forget it!" With that, the American god flicked out a short stock rifle from a holster on his custom bike and shot the elder fallen god between his eyes.

For all the good that did, as it barely caused Baduras to blink.

"Your toys of pure technology are useless against me," the ancient bearded god declared.

"I'd probably have to work at it a bit more," Johnny Reb admitted. "So old man, did you realize you were attacking the most powerful country in the world?"

"Fool. We are attacking all of the powerful nations of the world. Mortal and god's blood will flow into all the rivers, staining the oceans with your lives!" The debased god had the brackish water flow over him like a second skin.

"Well, shit. Mr. President, I do apologize in advance. This might sting a bit," Johnny Reb said as he flipped his rifle in complicated twirl that reloaded and cocked the hammer, then he pulled up the rifle and shot Baduras in the face again.

The potassium rounds burst into flames when they struck the watery armor, making it a bonfire of chemical flames. Baduras flinched, trying to put out the fire with even more water. Johnny snatched the president and his wife under his gun arm even as he twisted the throttle full, charging the more powerful god on his motorcycle.

The god, his bike and his impromptu passengers burst into flames and then exploded out of a building on fire a mile away.

"That god is going to be so damn angry! Hah!" Johnny set the two humans down.

"What the hell is going on?" President Obama demanded, trying to look as official as possible while wearing his pajamas.

"An invasion by the gods of Atlantis. Not that I know who the hell they are. And I'm stuck here in the mortal world while the rest of us are trapped in the Overworld. This is going to be a shitty way to die," the rebel complained. "And they've found us already."

Barack held his wife close as he saw what Johnny Reb was talking about. Flying monsters and savage looking warriors in cruel armor and vicious spiked swords filled the street from the Pontiac River under a blood red moon.

"God have mercy on our souls," the President of the United States said as he watched a thirty foot tall demon smashing a police car flat with a bladed mace, killing the two officers inside.

The Atlantean invaders were approaching rapidly up the road in their direction.

"Well, it does appear that we will need to retreat mite father back from the fighting, Mr. President. The army doesn't seem to be doing very well-" Johnny was saying in a very angry voice.

But he was interrupted as a howl erupted from sky as the moon shimmered as if a haze of heat was in the air, washing the red from it. Bestial half-wolf monsters with a few human appeared in a blast of dark shadows from the building down at the end of the road. It was the shadowy woman wielding a flickering, silver bright chain and sickle that was obviously the leader.

Venatorfuriae, Goddess of the Furies, led the three Furies into battle alongside the all female garou tribe into battle. Animal, wolf-like howls were their battlecry.

The Atlantean warriors were taken totally by surprise. Flickers of silver, midnight black fur and clothing turned the battle into a mad medley of metal on metal, blood spilt upon asphalt and grass. More and more female shadow warriors helping on the side of the battle of the young goddess.

"Well, shee-oot. Looks like the babes in wonderland are here. Just great!" Johny Reb said as he tipped the brim of his hat over his eyes.

The president looked back, hearing the sound of a muscle car on the empty street, echoing from some far off deep cave. The ground cracked open, showering ice and rocks into the depths. A black 1954 Ford Mustang shot out of the end of the crevice, engine squealing as it was not under load. It slammed down on the street with the screech of rubber and sparks as its under undercarriage bounced off the ground. It skidded sideways to a halt.

The moment it stopped, one huge and one small figure stepped out. Djorgen, God of the Cold Forge, shrugged off his mortal size, shooting up feet even as his spear slammed home. That massive clang summoned his Eijinher, his undead followers clawing their way out of the underworld.

Dougal, dwarven boon companion and crafting collaborator, pulled out a leather bag with a zipper. He unzipped the lumpy bag and started to pull out out the bastard child of a radiator and a rotary cannon, brass crank and all. He started turning the crank, spinning the rotor. It started to make crack sounds as superheated streams of ionized air were leaving glowing contrails from the railgun shots. All the while whistling with a wide smile that showed off a few of his missing teeth.

Dolph smashed the road, picking up a massive piece of the ground. He hefted the hundreds of tons and then threw it at one of the black iron ships on the Potomac. It caved in a magical field of protection, but only dented the ship itself.

The god of the Ice Cold Forge narrowed his eyes angrily. He was leaning down to pick up another huge section of road when the night was turned to day as a huge lightning bolt slammed home. It left the nine foot tall Aesir staggering and had destroyed his boulder.

On the Atlantean ship, whips were lashed as the lightning cannon was reloaded.

"Dolph!" Dana shouted in worry.

"I'm fine. Just need a second-"

A second lightning bolt lit up the night, causing the President, his wife and Johnny Reb to shade their eyes.

The ship's lightning cannon exploded as the bolt of lightning was returned to it.

"Good save, short stuff," Dolph called out from below as Sheila floated overhead.

The young goddess had managed to catch and deflect the lightning bolt back. "The Atlanteans are attacking here?"

"Guess so," Dolph said as he picked up another huge improvised rock.

Then another huge figure appeared as metal skidded across concrete in a spray of spark. The fifteen foot tall figure flipped when it slid across into one of Dolph's 'potholes' to land on one toe on the far side.

Bellicus Decipio's voice echoed out from inside. "Time to show these jerks some of our constitutional rights!" The cannon on her power armor's back shifted forward and then fired a blast that collapsed one of the shields on the ships.

"Hey, heroes! I got the president and his missus out, but I need to get back to whooping Atlantian god asses," Johnny Reb called out.

Sheila was suddenly hyper aware of the area. "Where?" she demanded.

"Wave!" Dana called out while pointing towards the Atlantic. "He's become the ocean."

"Mr. President. Can't say it was a pleasure. But a soldier's got to do what he's got to do." Johnny Reb gave a quick salute, then gunned his bike towards the water as he burst into flames. "Take care of him, kids!"

Baduras roared as his green eyes opened as the mound of water sculpted itself into a likeness of his awful form. "Die, godlings!" His fist smote down, instantly causing an earthquake centered on where it smashed home.

The wave reached Johnny Reb first, but he ducked through his own fire and out of a flaming car wreck that was spinning in the air, not even slowing his charge. Next it reached the Black Furies, The Furies and Dana as her shadows swallowed them all up or the flashed away on moonbeams. Janeka took off running, as fast as Sheila ever was in a streak of silver and soul steel. Dolph and his companion rose up on a pillar of stone and earth as he pushed his mastery of the Earth to dodge the attack.

Lastly, but not leastly, the wind snatched up the president and his wife as Shelinaria grabbed them and flew off.

"He's near omnipotent," the glowing-haired goddess said to them as they flashed off into the air after her cousin.

Dolph was the last to catch up to them as Johny Reb distracted the elder god of the oceans and destruction. He landed from a giant leap with his dwarven companion in hand, his precious, customized Ford Mustang held casually in the other.

"Where's Tsukyo?" the giant with his wintery hair asked.

"He was wanting to help defend Tokyo against the Atlantean god Versak. Lot's of undead, but we-" Jankea scowled angrily for a long moment. "We're outmatched. We need to get open the passages to the heavens."

"What is going on?" the leader of the free world demanded.

"The titans are breaking free and evil gods banished from this world are coming back. Our parents really undersold the enemies we would have to face," Sheila explained, looking too grim for her thirteen years of age.

"And you, Mr. President, now have to lead our country into a war unlike anything that's ever been fought," Janeka said as she rubbed her jaw. "We need to free our parents before the whole world is destroyed."

"God save us all," his wife said softly.

Sheila and Dana shared a quick glance. The younger goddess disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Where did she go?" the president demanded.

"She was just retrieving your daughters so that you could defend them and the country with a clear mind," the goddess of the Furies said glibly and so smoothly that could not tell she was adlibbing.

"Tada," Sheila said. "Perfect timing."

Janeka snorted at that. "Yasureyabetcha."

Dougal scratched his pitted, stony skin. "Heh."

The new gods and goddesses stepped away as the family reunited happily. Soldiers on the army base thirty miles away from Washington D.C. were running up. Air raid sirens were sounding in the distance as Americans found themselves at war.

"No more waiting. We need to break into Olympia as quick as we could. Heck, we should do it yesterday," the daughter of Ares stated in no uncertain terms.

Dana tilted her featureless black and shadowy head. "That way lies madness and destruction. Fate itself will punish us. The death of a child is but a spark compared to the forest fire of a god's future that will consume the unwary." She paused a second. "Hmm. A foretelling."

Janeka tilted her head in consideration. "Why not us?"

"We are bound tightly together," the oldest female goddess said. "The Fates that tie us together allow us to do more at the cost that we must always respond."

Sheila nodded slowly. "That sort of makes sense."

"So how are we doing this, gals?" Dolph asked even as he fell back into a his normal too-pretty near mortal looks. Well, if you were a super model that was airbrushed to perfection. Eat your heart out, Fabio.

"Since the titans are focusing on the Underworld in their battles, they must have been trying to keep the gods of the Underworld from being able to intercede and free the trapped monsters," Janeka said as her dark eyes were focused on nothing.

"Dolph, I'm not liking that expression on you face," Dana said in an exasperated tone of voice.

"What, Dana? I just want a good fight. I hated being forced to run back there. If Dougal hadn't been there, I would have taken a stab at that god personally." The Aesir looked very frustrated at being denied his fight.

"We are not assaulting them directly," Janeka said, giving him a glare, looking up at the near giant.

His grip on his spear creaked, but then he nodded. "Right."

"So we need to sneak through the hordes of the titans, find out how the gods are trapped in the Overworld, free them and fight off the ancient elder gods of Atlantis from rampaging over the Earth while the second Titan War kicks off in the Overworld and the Underworld?" the youngest member of the group asked them.

"Sums it up pretty good. Shit, this sucks," the daughter of Ares muttered to herself.

"We need to get Tsukyo first," Dana reminded them.

That was easier said than done, as he and his companion had been defeated and captured! On live TV no less. He had not retreated quickly enough and found himself thrown into a huge clay pot and sealed alive.

* * *

The stygian gloom of the trampled field of Elysium were only inhabited by monsters now. Ogres, trolls, giants of all creeds were the masters now, all at the behest of the titans as they followed. Here in the Underworld of the Dodekatheon, the lesser titans stood above them as leaders with flinty, angry eyes.

In the darkness, dark evil eyes watched as a group of giants headed purposefully towards them.

"PASSWORD!" the cyclops shouted at the new group. His war band was quite large, with many zombies, ghosts and hungry dead counted among the vassals of a terrifying Vrykolakas that watched from the center of the band.

"Terra will rise and crush all!" the giant with dark red hair in the fore returned, a sneer on his brutish face.

The cyclops narrowed its one eye, then looked over at the ancient vampire.

It walked up, looking small to giants, but they were not fooled. It was at least as dangerous as they were. It's hooked, snaggle toothed face just seemed too dry, but was more hideous than could be believed. "Why do you walk unto conquered Hades?" it said in a stilted manner, it's red eyes glowing malevolently.

"Conscripts for the war on Olympus," the giant rumbled. It pointed at the other lesser giants.

The vampire smiled at the four giants. "We shall escort you to the gates. If you try to trick us... you will feed my warriors. And they are eternally hungry."

The giants seemed unperturbed, heading away from the shore of the Styx and towards the broken gates of the necropolis that Hades had ruled for thousands of years. More challenges came from other monsters, including a mighty Antean giant every few hours, but they allowed the first guards to continue their escort

The lesser giant looked to the left, taking a path away from the city for many hours. The two war bands passed by crude forts and monsters in the hundreds until they finally reached a mighty passage in the cavern walls. Stone and moss filled the huge, three hundred foot tall passage as a full fifty Antean giants stood guard. They looked quite imposing in full Grecian armor with spears that were twice as tall as they were.

But it was a human sized man of in front that stood out, finely muscled and obviously wearing Grecian armor. "I am Kadiums, son of Zeus. Do you seek fame on the bloodied fields of Olympus?" Lightning crackled across his sword.

"Yaaaaaah!" the red-haired giant shouted, his three fellows.

The ground rumbled softly as a giant woman made entirely of stone, dirt, flowers and moss stepped out of the 'plug' between Elysium and Olympia. Over a hundred feet tall of pure perfection with ruby rose petals and amethyst lilies for her irises, skin a pale alabaster stone. Her presence nearly stunned all those on the trampled fields of Elysium as she walked over to tower over them all.

"Stop, Kadimus! You are about to make a grave mistake," Gaia called out as she raised a hand. "They are cloaked in an illusion. Can you not sense that something is off?" She pointed her hand imperiously at the giants that were suddenly standing confused.

Their forms rippled like water, revealing Sheila, Dolph, Janeka and Dana. They looked totally stunned.

"Warriors! Kill the spawn of the kinslayer!" Kadimus shouted as he drew his short sword.

He then threw a lightning bolt at Dolph with enough power to light up New York City, causing the Aesir to scream out in pain.


End file.
